House floor fails motion to ask leadership to schedule all bills; members agree to reconvene at 7 a.m. Monday

Representatives debated how to handle a backlog of bills on the House calendar on Feb. 26, 1993. Representative Nielsen moved that the Speaker and leadership schedule the calendar to ensure all bills currently on the board could be addressed before the session ended and offered to be available at any hour to accommodate that work.

Members pressed for more detail about specific dates and whether weekend or Sabbath schedules were being proposed. Representative Nielsen replied, "Whenever you schedule it, I'll be here," but members asked leadership for a concrete proposal. The motion drew questions about whether some items on the board had yet to pass out of committee and whether continuing was in the body—s best interest.

A counted division occurred during the vote on the motion; after counting and additional floor procedure, the motion failed. Separately, a request to lift House Bill 342 to the top of the third-reading calendar was objected to by Members concerned about fairness to bills already scheduled and that motion failed as well.

Later in the day members approved a motion to adjourn and reconvene at 7 a.m. Monday, with a commitment that the first hour Monday morning would focus on House bills and that reading-in of Senate bills would occur first. The rules committee recommended a set of Senate bills be read for second reading and placed on the third-reading calendar; the House adopted that committee report.

Procedural notes recorded in the transcript urge appropriation subcommittees to meet and finalize reprioritizations ahead of Monday's reconvening.